Arrears

GROVELAND -- Lake County's biggest home has plenty of room to spare, with a grand staircase spiraling up four floors toward a lofty dome hand-painted to show clouds against a pale-blue sky. A theater seats up to 40 people in front of a 12-foot-wide screen. There's a grand ballroom, his-and-her kitchens and a different bedroom available for each day of the week, with a guest suite to spare. Thirsty? Stop by the pub. Afterward you might want to find one of more than a dozen bathrooms. But the flashy, music-loving developer who owns it has had trouble keeping up payments on the gargantuan home, which at 32,000 square feet dwarfs the typical family residence.

I want to take the opportunity to welcome my comrade, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, as the new incoming chairperson of the Organization Of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). The challenges ahead confronting this organization are recurring and cannot continued to be ignored or hidden under the rug. They must be addressed in a committed and strategic manner. While I have always endured doubts about what realistically can be achieved by a new chairperson in one year, it was quite encouraging to have read and listened to the comments made by Comrade Gonsalves with respect to his immediate task of addressing the financial situation in the Secretariat.

WASHINGTON - To milk all they can out of their final rent check, first-time home buyers often try to schedule their closings as close to the end of the month as possible.But there's another reason practically all buyers, not just rookies, prefer to settle late in the month - interest. The later you close, the less interest that's due to the lender. And that means you'll need less cash.Mortgage interest is collected in arrears. So, if the loan begins on the first of the month, borrowers are required to pay interest from the settlement date until the end of the month.

GROVELAND -- Lake County's biggest home has plenty of room to spare, with a grand staircase spiraling up four floors toward a lofty dome hand-painted to show clouds against a pale-blue sky. A theater seats up to 40 people in front of a 12-foot-wide screen. There's a grand ballroom, his-and-her kitchens and a different bedroom available for each day of the week, with a guest suite to spare. Thirsty? Stop by the pub. Afterward you might want to find one of more than a dozen bathrooms. But the flashy, music-loving developer who owns it has had trouble keeping up payments on the gargantuan home, which at 32,000 square feet dwarfs the typical family residence.

UNITED NATIONS -- The United States has reduced its debt to the United Nations by about $135 million but still owes more than $1.5 billion, a U.N. spokeswoman said Wednesday. The $135 million went to reduce arrears to a number of U.N. peacekeeping operations, 30 percent of whose costs are assessed against the United States. But Washington still owes $1.16 billion for peacekeeping and about $460 million in arrears to the regular U.N. budget, for which the U.S. assessment is 25 percent. In a related development, 38 countries, including the United States, have requested the 188-nation General Assembly review the scale of assessments for U.N. peacekeeping operations during its session opening in September.

The European Union Wednesday proposed a sweeping new U.N. payment plan that would reduce costs for the United States but raise them for Japan. As the United Nations teeters on the edge of bankruptcy with $2.3 billion in debts, the new British-drafted proposals are aimed at more equitable assessments in hopes Washington would pay its $1.2 billion arrears.

Lloyd's, the world's biggest insurance market, faces a loss of $2.49 billion on its 1990 year of account, independent Lloyd's analysts Chatset said Thursday. Lloyd's reports its results three years in arrears to allow time to process insurance claims. Last year Lloyd's announced a record $3.14 billion loss for 1989. Chatset said it expected combined losses for the years 1988 to 1991 to total about $7.62 billion.

TO COVER a shortfall in money promised by the United States, the World Bank plans to double its contribution to the agency that grants loans to the poorest countries. The decision coincided with the bank's announcement Friday of a 12 percent drop in profit for the 12 months ended June 30. Thursday's recommendation to increase to $600 million the World Bank contribution to the International Development Association came from representatives of the 180 member countries, including the United States, on the bank's executive board.

Peru will not drop its plan to pay $320 million at most on its foreign debt in the next 12 months even if its credit rating suffers. ''We do not fear being declared value-impaired,'' Prime Minister Luis Alva Castro told the official newspaper El Peruano. Paul Volcker, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, has said that Peru's rating, now ''substandard,'' faces review by October. Peru's arrears and payments due for the next year are $5.6 billion. Total foreign debt is $14 billion. U.S. banks have lent $2.2 billion.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- The Inter-American Development Bank said Thursday that it will start releasing nearly $200 million in loans withheld since 2000, allowing Haiti to move forward with projects to improve health care, education and infrastructure. The loans come at a crucial time for the Caribbean country, which has seen increasing poverty and unrest since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's party swept disputed legislative elections in 2000. Earlier this month, Haiti dipped into its dollar reserves to pay off $32 million in arrears to the IDB. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- The Inter-American Development Bank said Thursday that it will start releasing nearly $200 million in loans withheld since 2000, allowing Haiti to move forward with projects to improve health care, education and infrastructure. The loans come at a crucial time for the Caribbean country, which has seen increasing poverty and unrest since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's party swept disputed legislative elections in 2000. Earlier this month, Haiti dipped into its dollar reserves to pay off $32 million in arrears to the IDB. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

There's a moment at the start of Rent's second act when all the noise falls away, when more than a dozen voices blend into a harmony that makes time stand still. That's the moment you wait for in any production of Rent -- the moment that shows you full-out what the exultation of this musical is all about. But moments like that one come all too seldom in this generic tour of Jonathan Larson's hit musical, a Broadway blockbuster since early 1996. More often than not, this Rent is just a paint-by-numbers imitation of the original.

UNITED NATIONS -- The European Union has proposed the United States, which owes the United Nations more than $1.5 billion, get a cut in its dues payments if it cleans up arrears within three years, France said Thursday. The United Nations is trying to restructure contributions for 189 nations to both the $1 billion annual administrative budget and a fluctuating peacekeeping budget, expected to be more than $3 billion a year. The 15-nation alliance agreed to lower U.S. regular budget dues from 25 percent to 22 percent and peacekeeping from 30 percent to about 26 percent to 27 percent.

UNITED NATIONS -- The United States has reduced its debt to the United Nations by about $135 million but still owes more than $1.5 billion, a U.N. spokeswoman said Wednesday. The $135 million went to reduce arrears to a number of U.N. peacekeeping operations, 30 percent of whose costs are assessed against the United States. But Washington still owes $1.16 billion for peacekeeping and about $460 million in arrears to the regular U.N. budget, for which the U.S. assessment is 25 percent. In a related development, 38 countries, including the United States, have requested the 188-nation General Assembly review the scale of assessments for U.N. peacekeeping operations during its session opening in September.

QUESTION: I am the president of a small condominium. We have an owner who disagrees with some of the work we recently did. She is withholding $3 a month on her maintenance fees. In addition, she has withheld half of a special assessment because she says she does not approve the work. We went to a lawyer and he said it would cost too much and we should forget it. Can we afford to start a legal battle with the cost of lawyers and court costs? ANSWER: Yes, you can afford to start the legal process.

UNITED NATIONS - Despite U.S. lawmakers' criticism of the United Nations and failure to pay U.S. back dues, most Americans support the world body and want Washington to pay the estimated $1.3 billion it owes, a poll released Thursday shows. By a 3-to-1 margin, the Americans surveyed favored paying the arrears. And of those who want Congress to approve payment, 49 percent said the issue would affect their vote for lawmakers, said the poll, sponsored by the United Nations Association of the USA, a U.N. advocacy group.

Delegates from 14 nations and seven international agencies met in Washington Monday to try toraise $360 million for Nicaragua. ''Most if not all the funds should be raised,'' said one official close to the two-day talks at the World Bank headquarters. Nicaragua would use the money to cover its $360 million in arrears with the World Bank and other lending agencies so as to become eligible for fresh funds. Nicaragua's economy is in ruins after an eight-year civil war and the prevailing sense at the meeting was one of urgency to assist President Violeta Chamorro with her plans to introduce a market economy.

UNITED NATIONS -- The European Union has proposed the United States, which owes the United Nations more than $1.5 billion, get a cut in its dues payments if it cleans up arrears within three years, France said Thursday. The United Nations is trying to restructure contributions for 189 nations to both the $1 billion annual administrative budget and a fluctuating peacekeeping budget, expected to be more than $3 billion a year. The 15-nation alliance agreed to lower U.S. regular budget dues from 25 percent to 22 percent and peacekeeping from 30 percent to about 26 percent to 27 percent.

WASHINGTON - To milk all they can out of their final rent check, first-time home buyers often try to schedule their closings as close to the end of the month as possible.But there's another reason practically all buyers, not just rookies, prefer to settle late in the month - interest. The later you close, the less interest that's due to the lender. And that means you'll need less cash.Mortgage interest is collected in arrears. So, if the loan begins on the first of the month, borrowers are required to pay interest from the settlement date until the end of the month.

Kathye Dixon envisions a cookie company competing with the best, such as Famous Amos, Mrs. Fields or Keebler.Orlando officials believed in her so much that they lent her $50,000 in federal tax dollars in August 1995 to start PK's Gourmet Cookies Inc.Her commercial kitchen, formerly slated for West Colonial Drive, has not opened, and she has not made one of her $1,025 monthly payments to the city.''This has been a very hard battle for me,'' she said. ''I've been determined to stick it out.''Dixon's performance is not atypical for Orlando's so-called micro-loan program.